First off, this was a horrible quality DVD--all fuzzy and washed out and greatly in need of restoration. Fortunately, a Blu-Ray version is being released in a little over a week.

This is an unusual Marlon Brando film because in addition to starring, he directed the movie. However, according to IMDb, the studio was shocked when he delivered a five-hour plus film and drastically edited it. The finished edited version is a slowly unfolding film--so in hindsight it's probably good the film was edited. I just can't imagine the film strung out to five hours.

The film begins with Brando and his two partners robbing a bank in Mexico. Soon, the law arrives and kills one of them. The two survivors (Brando and Karl Malden) escape into the desert. They are pinned down and Malden leaves to get horses so they can escape. However, Malden appeared to have just run off and left his friend to the authorities--and Brando is sent to prison. Five years later, he escapes and is looking for Malden to exact revenge. Ironically, however, Malden has re-written himself--and is a sheriff. Now this makes for a rather interesting reunion! What's even more interesting is that Malden seems to have Brando fooled--and Malden treats him like a friend. At Malden's home, Brando then falls in love with Malden's step-daughter (Pina Pellicer). Now what is going to happen? While I could tell you more, I don't want to spoil it--but there is A LOT more to this film than this.

Generally, this is a very good western. My one criticism is that both Malden and Brando play men who just aren't all that bright. They both have great opportunities to end their rivalry once and for all---yet let their enemy escape. In real life, I just can't see this happening--especially when one vows to the other "...one day I'll kill you"---and yet the other guy lets him escape!! Any sane person would have just shot him in the face and be done with it! Also, the relationship between Brando and Pellicer seemed a bit unlikely, as they fall madly in love but their motivation seems a bit lacking.

Now these are minor complaints. Otherwise, it's a good film--one of the better westerns of the era. Good acting (particularly by Malden) and an interesting plot make this one worth seeing.

By the way, at the end of the film, while Brando is in jail, there's a dog in there with him. I wonder what HIS crime was (I mean the dog)? Also, I saw this film with my wife and she hated the original ending that I read from the SPOILER on IMDb's trivia--I think it sounded great! But, the studio thought this downbeat ending would irritate audiences--and it probably would have--though it would have given the film a nice twist.

In the only film that Marlon Brando ever directed, One Eyed Jacks, he and Karl Malden play a pair of amiable bank robbers who are operating south of the border. During a robbery the rest of the gang is killed and Brando's horse is shot from under him. With the Federales closing in there's no way one horse could carry them both as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid later found out. Malden elects to go for fresh mounts, only Malden doesn't come back. The Federales capture Brando and he's off to do a stretch in a Mexican prison.

Fast forward several years and Brando busts out of prison and goes north of the border. He and his fellow escapee Larry Duran fall in with robbers Ben Johnson and Sam Gilman. Johnson brings Brando an irresistible proposition. A bank in Monterey, California that he says will be easy to rob. And the best part, Karl Malden has gone respectable and is the sheriff there.

Malden's not only respectable, he's a married guy now, married to Katy Jurado and stepfather to the wide eyed Pina Pellicer. A good line of talk and the sight of Pellicer ease Brando's resolve for revenge.

In this stylistic western that is good, but doesn't quite make it to classic standards, Brando has managed to bring Hamlet out west. It took Hamlet the whole play to finally settle with his intended target and it takes Brando just about as long. His character Rio moves in fits and starts like Hamlet, gets sidetracked a few times as well like the melancholy Dane. Hamlet's target is his stepfather who killed his real father and usurped the throne and it's no coincident that Malden's character is named Dad.

Brando wisely cast his film with folks from previous westerns who look quite at home on the range if he sometimes doesn't. My best moment is Brando outwitting that lout of a deputy Malden has, Slim Pickens to affect a jail break.

Marlon Brando's legion of fans should find One Eyed Jacks acceptable and other western aficionados will like it as well.

It's 1880 in Sonara, Mexico. Rio (Marlon Brando) is a bank robber on the run from the authorities. His partner Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) double-crosses him and escapes leaving Rio behind. Rio is captured but he escapes from Sonora prison 5 years later. He hunts down Dad who is now a sheriff in California.

This is most notable for being Marlon Brando's one and only directing effort. It's a simple western with some competent scenes. However there are a lot of amateurish camera work too. There's a reason Brando never became a director. Eventually he lost his overly long movie to be recut by the studio.

The movie as it is cut by the studio is a slow disjointed western. It's not anything original or special. Karl Malden and Marlon Brando are both great actors in their prime. Neither characters are simple and the movie is compelling enough to watch. Mostly just to see what these great actors are going to do. There is a couple of nice performances from Pina Pellicer and Katy Jurado.